Victor Borkowski (Earth-616)
(Xavier Institute student body), , , , | Relatives = Mr. Borkowski (father); Mrs. Borkowski (mother) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Krakoa, Pacific Ocean; formerly Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach, Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York; Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, X-Haven, Limbo (formerly Salem Center, Westchester County, New York); Utopia, San Francisco Bay, California; Grace Cathedral; Graymalkin Industries, Marin Highlands, San Francisco, California; Danger Cave; Fairbury, Illinois | CharRef = | Gender = Male | Height = Unknown | Height2 = ; formerly 5'9"Category:Height 5' 9" | Weight = Unknown | Weight2 = ; formerly 125 lbs | Eyes = Brown | Hair = None | Hair2 = ; formerly blackCategory:Black Hair | UnusualSkinColour = Green | UnusualFeatures = Spiked carapace instead of hair, and large reptilian right arm; scaly skin | Citizenship = American | Citizenship2 = Krakoan | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Adventurer, Worthington Industries board chairman; former student | Education = Various courses at Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, Westchester County, New York | Origin = Mutant | PlaceOfBirth = Fairbury, Illinois | Creators = Nunzio DeFilippis; Christina Weir; Keron Grant | First = New Mutants Vol 2 2 | Quotation = Uh, hello. Gay? | Speaker = Anole | QuoteSource = Cloak and Dagger Vol 4 1 | HistoryText = Origin Victor Borkowski was born and raised in Fairbury, Illinois. He lived a normal life despite his reptilian features, a result of his being a mutant. The close-knit community accepted the boy for who he was until anti-mutant sentiment began to spread. For his own safety, his parents sent him to the Xavier Institute where he quickly excelled academically. Academy X & Alpha Squadron When the adviser system was set up at the Xavier Institute, Victor originally chose Wolverine, but quickly realized that was not a good fit and then switched to Karma as his adviser. However, during the formation of training squads throughout the school, he was reassigned to Northstar's Alpha Squadron. At first, he was quite friendly with Hellion and the other Hellions, but he became closer to his teammates. He was especially close to Northstar and was deeply affected by his death. (He, like most of the students, was unaware of Northstar's resurrection until Northstar was sent by Serafina to kill the X-Men). Victor is gay, and Northstar helped him to come to terms with his sexuality. When Northstar attacked the Institute, Anole found him and was able to temporarily snap him out of the mind control set in place by the Children of the Vault. However, Victor's joy at seeing his former mentor was short-lived, as Jean-Paul returned to his mind-controlled status and viciously beat him. Decimation Anole was one of only 27 students at the Institute who didn't lose his mutant powers in the event known as M-Day. The squad system was dissolved, and the remaining students were merged into one group. Shortly afterwards, Emma Frost set up an all-out brawl amongst the remaining students to determine who would become the team of X-Men trainees; Victor was not selected, yet still resided and trained at the Institute. Anole was asked by Mercury to cover the raid of the New X-Men against Nimrod at Forge's Dallas home, and was interrogated by Val Cooper and O*N*E Colonel Reyes. He was consequently orange-flagged by the O*N*E afterwards. with his brand new reptilian arm]] Quest for Magik Victor was seen with many of the other students and Rockslide telling scary stories. Later, all the students started listening to a tale Blindfold made up for them. They soon realized however that her story wasn't make-believe, and she apologized just before the group was sucked down into the dimension of Limbo. They were attacked by a large group of demons and Victor argued with Rockslide, saying that he was supposed to lead them, since he was a "New X-Man". When Rockslide was mysteriously shattered, Victor attempted to take charge, rallying the students around the defenseless Blindfold, only to have his right arm severed at the shoulder by a demon. He wondered why he wasn't dead from losing too much blood and why it didn't hurt. Anole grew a huge reptilian arm that replaced the one he had lost. It seemed his mutation also endowed him with the ability to recover limbs, though they emerged as more mutated/reptilian versions of the originals. The arm itself was spiky, resembling his scalp, with razor sharp claws and appeared to be immensely powerful. After defeating Belasco, Anole and Pixie were made members of the New X-Men squad on recommendation of Rockslide, who threatened to quit if they weren't appointed. Victor was later seen playing pool while Rockslide and X-23 tried to convince him to cut off his other arm. When he refused Rockslide called him a sissy. Anole got offended and pushed him out the window while Rockslide proclaimed, "I swear I didn't know! Don't be so sensitive!" After Rockslide refused to blow himself up Anole called him a sissy to get him to do it. He then offered to try and blow up Santo himself. Santo later outed Victor as gay to some of the other students, though Loa (a fellow member of Alpha Squadron) was already aware and said that everyone knew. Messiah Complex When Professor Xavier detected the first mutant birth since M-Day, the X-Men went to the baby's birthplace to protect the child. They found the town destroyed by the Purifiers, who abhorred the child as the anti-Christ prophesied by Nimrod and the late Reverend William Stryker and sought to kill the baby. Upon discovery that the child was not dead, but missing, the X-Men divided into teams to search for it. Some of the New X-Men and Armor decided to launch a preemptive strike against the Purifiers to see if they had the baby, as well as to seek revenge for their murdered classmates. Anole sneaked into the base using his camouflage powers and while he checked the Purifiers' computers, Rictor, who was undercover, confronted him. They were ambushed by the Reavers, who mortally wounded Hellion in the fight. Pixie managed to teleport the team out and they were spread between Washington and the Institute. It's currently unknown if he suffered any injuries. Divided We Stand After Cyclops disbanded the X-Men as well as the school, Victor received a warm welcome from the citizens of his hometown, stating "The town practically threw me a parade." Northstar, contacted by Cyclops, found Anole, who went into hiding after he accidentally attacked his own father. Northstar discovered Anole on a tree limb beside a tree house, the teenager not too happy to see his former mentor. At first, Jean-Paul made jokes, thinking Victor was having a problem with fitting in, as both a mutant and as a gay teen. Victor explained that his town accepted him for who he was - his problems came from Northstar, along with the other X-Men, for stealing the New X-Men's innocence. He told Northstar that they should have been playing video games and going on dates, "...not fighting the Devil!" Victor placed a lizard-like stuffed animal at the base of the tree with a note reading "Mom and Dad. I'm sorry and I love you. Victor." He told Northstar that his parents would look for him at the tree house first once they began searching for him, and he called the tree house his own X-Mansion. Just before Anole departed, he elbowed Jean-Paul in the face - similar to how Northstar attacked him in the past - and told him to tell all of the former X-Men not to come looking for him. ]] Young X-Men, Manifest Destiny & Secret Invasion Despite telling off Northstar, Victor accepted Dani Moonstar's offer to join the Young X-Men and move to San Francisco. Soon after arriving in San Francisco, Anole assisted Jonas Graymalkin, another member of the new Young X-Men team, with coming to terms with his sexuality, which had led him to being buried by his bigoted father nearly 200 years earlier. Anole and Graymalkin formed a close friendship, and Anole took on some responsibility for taking care of Graymalkin. With the Young X-Men, Anole battled Krakoa and defeated of the Y-Men. Anole was an instrumental member of the X-Men in combating the Skrull invasion of Earth by using his ability to camouflage. During the initial invasion, he and the Stepford Cuckoos helped evacuate the San Francisco General Hospital and later helped take intel photos of the Skrull ships. Utopia & Nation X Anole was with Beast and others during the Proposition X rallies which led to the San Francisco mutant riots. He was with the X-Men against the Dark Avengers and the Dark X-Men. During the final battle, he was shot in the abdomen with one of Hawkeye's arrows. He and Graymalkin were the ones to raise the X-Flag on Utopia. On Utopia, Anole, Loa, and Rockslide went looking for help, claiming that a ghost had kidnapped Mercury. Cyclops claimed that the X-Men were too busy to deal with it because of trade negotiations. Magneto stepped up and told them he would investigate, since negotiations were never his strong suit. He took the three kids into the sub-levels. The kids were unsure if they should trust him, which seemed founded when he allowed Sentinels to attack them. He eventually took the Sentinels out. When they found Mercury, they also found a recording that Magneto had set up in the case of his death. Magneto sent all the kids away. The recording said that mutants could never live in coexistence with man, and needed a place for themselves. Magneto smiled and turned off the machine. When the kids asked what it was, Magneto said it was just an old ghost, and that he gave it what it wanted. Anole continued his Danger Room training while on Utopia, and, along with Graymalkin and Rockslide, helped orient Dagger to X-Men training. Later Anole and the other Young X-Men helped save both Dagger and her partner Cloak from a group of anti-mutant terrorists. Anole, Rockslide, Dust, Trance, and Loa visited the mainland to see Jubilee. Jubilee was uncertain about going to the island, since she was no longer a mutant. The kids were extremely happy to see her. Rockslide said that Anole had a crush on her. Then Surge appeared and started arguing with Jubilee and told her she should not be there. Jubilee realized that she was still a mutant on the inside, even if she did not have powers, and showed this to Surge. Surge and the other kids left, and Surge offered her to join them, but Jubilee declined. Jubilee then finished a letter to give to Wolverine and left the docks. Anole and the younger X-Men were shown with Cannonball on Utopia teaching them how to plant their own food, to which Anole said that they were wasting their time and that they could just buy their food from the store. Anole looked at Magik expecting her to agree with him, however she didn't respond and instead teleported him to Limbo for five days without food or water. Eventually she returned with water for him. Anole told her that he had learned his lesson and that without planting their own food, the mutant race could starve to death, but Magik responded that she did not intend to teach him a lesson, she had sent him to limbo because she was sick of looking at him. Magik teleported them both back to Utopia where Anole resumed his work in farming. Pixie Strikes Back When Pixie, Armor, X-23, Mercury, and Blindfold went missing, Anole and Rockslide went in search of them. They found Blindfold alone in the girls washroom. Rockslide accidentally broke the door down. Anole and Santo talked to Ruth, but found out nothing. They took Ruth to see Emma. Together with Emma, Rockslide, Nightcrawler, and Psylocke, Anole was able to help save the hostage mutants from Saturnine. Second Coming: Hellbound After the return of the Mutant Messiah and during Bastion's Nimrod attacks of San Fransisco, Anole joined a team of X-Men in rescuing Magik from Limbo after she was sent there by Bastion's forces. Cannonball chose Anole for the mission to provide moral support for Pixie, whose teleportation ability they required to travel to Limbo. Anole and Pixie were extremely reluctant to risk themselves for Magik, who they believed did not deserve to be saved, but decided to go because they are heroes. In Limbo, Anole fended off demons and bickered with Cannonball; he also took out his teammate Dazzler when she was corrupted by Limbo's influence. In the end, Pixie and Anole somewhat resolved their issues with Magik and the team returned home. Collision and To Protect and Serve After returning from Limbo and the defeat of Bastion, Anole accompanied Indra, Rogue, Magneto, and Loa to Mumbai, India when the Gavaskar family called Indra back home. While there Anole helped defeat the Children of the Vault and saved Mumbai from destruction. In the wake of the Nimrod Sentinels siege and Vampire invasion and with the dawning of a brighter age, Rockslide was able to convince Anole to patrol the streets of San Fransisco at night as masked crime fighters. Anole and Rockslide were successful in keeping their identities secret (commonly being confused for a Moon Knight Skrull and The Thing in a Jason Vorrhees-esque hockey mask) until their crime fighting activity caught the attention of Mister Negative who promptly sent the Serpent Society out to assassinate them. From Quarantine to Graduation Anole was the first mutant to contract the mutant flu created by Lobe and Sublime Corporation. Because of his physical mutation he began showing signs early on and was one of the hardest hit. When Cyclops decided to send the X-Men to attack Sublime Corp., Anole was one of the most determined to be a part of the team. Anole was among the New X-Men members that protected Cyclops during the attack on Utopia by the Evolutionaries. Anole was also among the other students that saved Irma from the attack of Toad, Dragoness, Bliss, and Litterbug. During the Schism event, Anole was one of the X-Men who helped to defeat the Sentinel attacking Utopia. Afterward he was in the group that followed Wolverine back to the ruins in Westchester County, to rebuild the Xavier Institute. After several adventures, Victor graduated as a full X-Man from the Jean Grey School and became Chairman of the Board of Worthington Industries. Omega World In the wake of a massive wave of anti-mutant sentiment combined with the discovery that the Terrigen Mists spread in the atmosphere were harmful to mutants, Anole, as well as many other mutants, were sheltered on a sanctuary called X-Haven. Once the X-Men were rebuilt, Anole and a few other young mutants (Ernst, Glob, and No-Girl) were assembled by Colossus to be trained in order to become X-Men. When Cerebra detected the sudden appearance of six hundred new mutant signatures in Tokyo, Storm sent Colossus and his team of young mutants to investigate. Cerebra took them to the warehouse where all the mutant signatures were coming from, and to their surprise, it served as the base of the Sugar Man, an old enemy of the X-Men. Sugar Man had genetically engineered six hundred mutant embryos in total isolation from the Terrigen Mists and planned to send them to the future. There they would be safe from the M-Pox caused by the Mists and would grow to become the next generation of mutants, with Sugar Man as their leader. However, Colossus' interference separated Sugar Man from his ark and Colossus, along with his team, ended up being teleported with the embryos to the future. Arriving a thousand of years into Earth's future, Colossus and his team ended up on Omega World, composed of what had remained of Earth after Apocalypse's uprising. After Colossus sacrificed himself in order to save his students from the Horsemen of Apocalypse, Anole and the other young mutants spent an entire year fighting their way through Apocalypse's Omega World to try and find a way to return to their home, but in vain. While wandering a destroyed New York City, now home to one of the few races that survived Apocalypse's trials, the Moloids, Anole and his friends encountered the X-Men, who had followed them through the timestream. They were attacked by the Horsemen of Apocalypse and their newest member, Colossus, soon afterwards. ResurrXion When Kitty Pryde relocated the school to Central Park in New York City and renamed it the Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach, Anole decided to attend as a student. He would later defend the Institute and mutantkind from many threats including Daken, Mojo's invasion, the Purifiers' assault on the school, and M-Plate. X-Men Disassembled Anole was later apart of Kitty's training squad, along with Oya, Rockslide, Pixie, and Armor tasked with stopping the Mutant Liberation Front from destroying a lab that contained the mutant vaccine. But before the mission could start, X-Man kidnapped Kitty by phasing her through the Blackbird, short-circuiting the entire jet and crashing it into the lab they were meant to save. From then on, the injured team is ambushed by the MLF while a Legion-possessed Multiple Man ran up to a nearly comatose Anole to question him on where Kitty had gone. Anole was later brought to Beast's lab after the MLF were stopped by reinforcements. Unknowingly mind-controlled by Emma Frost, he stole a sample of mutant vaccine that was held in the lab to give to O*N*E. Upon being confronted on it, Anole confessed to Beast that he wanted mutants to have a chance to cure themselves so they never have to face hate for having physical mutations. Pixie then teleported over to the lab to recruit Anole and Beast against X-Man in the final battle on Quadra Island. When X-Man realized that his vision for the world would never come about with the X-Men around, he made them vanish in an instant, including Anole. Age of X-Man Anole and the mutants that vanished were sent to a different reality created by Nate Grey and a Life Seed, a world where everyone on Earth was a mutant and relationships were strongly discouraged or illegal. Glob was a student at the Summers Institute for Higher Learning in Westchester County. Like its mainstream reality counterpart, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the Summers Institute taught mutant children how to control their mutant abilities. Anole was one of the students who were part of the Summers Institute's Medical Division at the Summers Institute for Higher Learning. Anole was also a follower of Murshid En Sabah Nur alongside Bling!. Together they burned down a building in order to disrupt what they called a "fascist regime." Anole is able to escape but Bling! is caught by Blob and re-programmed. Anole later took a vial of Unveil in order to remember the resistance pact he had made with Maggott. He tasks Rockslide with looking up records of a 'Life Seed' while he went to go meet the rest of the resistance. The resistance, also comprised of Sister Tromette, Brother Hammil, and Scripture, reveal to Anole that to fully stop X-Man's brainwashing, he would have to bomb the Hope Summers Memorial Library. Glob and Armor told Anole him that they knew what he was up to an if he continued to rebel against X-Man then he would disappear. Later that same day, Hisako confronted him in his dorm over his dangerous allegiances. Before he could explain himself, Pixie showed up to see an empty vial of Unveil and promptly place him under arrest before she was knocked unconscious by Armor, allowing Victor to escape. Anole meets back up with Maggott and the rebels. Japheth reminded Victor that the X-Tracts' message of love and acceptance had gotten them nowhere and only radical action would change things. Anole later followed through with blowing up the Library. Glob, Armor, and Rockslide rescued Anole from the remains of the Library before getting chased and successfully evading Department X. Glob, who had all his pre-Age of X-Man memories, brought the team to this reality's version of Quadra Island to find the Life Seed to no avail. Pixie then showed up with the Marvelous X-Men to place everyone under arrest. Jailed in the Danger Room Prison Complex with his memories wiped, he accepts Beast's offer to join his gang of mutants with physical mutations. Psylocke, fed up with X-Man's makeshift reality, unleashes everyone's memories that she had taken away which creates a riot between the prisoners and the guards. After Nate Grey transformed all of the mutants back into their mainstream counterparts, Anole was shown standing in front of a portal in the Danger Room Prison Complex with Armor and Glob Herman, ready to return to their regular universe. House of X Anole later became a resident of the new mutant nation of Krakoa. He and the rest of the Krakoa celebrated when Krakoa was recognized as an official nation. | Powers = Anole is a mutant with reptilian-like physiology including: * Scaly Skin * Enhanced Agility: Anole's natural agility, balance, and coordination are enhanced to increased levels, allowing him to perform feats that those of normal agility would find incredibly hard to do. * Enhanced Speed: Capable of moving and running slightly faster than a normal human, but he is not on par with powered speedsters. * Enhanced Reflexes: He has the reaction time that is roughly half of that of normal baseline human's. * Enhanced Strength: Anole possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift weights to, as of yet, unmeasured levels. There are some examples of his strength: 1) during his first journey in Limbo his strength was enough to scramble a magical force field that was imprisoning him and his friends; 2) during a fight against a Sentinel, Anole's strength was enough to break the metal armor plate of his adversary. However this power is present only in his right arm, and only appeared after regrowing his limb. The rest of his body remains in general human strength. Beast affirmed that any new limb that will regrow on Anole, it will be gifted with super strength exactly as in his right arm. He shows his strength once again after gaining a larger reptilian form after a draconic entity nearly roasted him alive, proving himself strong enough to kill giant monstrous creatures bare handed. * Enhanced Stamina: Anole's muscles produce far less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the muscles of an average human. He can exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue impairs him. * Long, Elastic, Sticky, Prehensile, Forked Tongue: Anole has an incredibly long tongue (apparently longer than his own body length) which he is capable of rapidly and abruptly extending out of the mouth. The tongue has a sticky tip on the end, which serves to catch anything that he would otherwise never be able to reach. * Wallcrawling: Similar to Spider-Man, Anole can climb vertically up walls and hang from ceilings from pads on his hands and feet. * Camouflage: Anole possesses superhuman ability to alter his skin color and appearance enabling him to copy the pattern of any surface he stands against. * Razor Sharp Spikes & Claws: As part of his physical mutation, Anole has spikes that appear on his scalp. His newly regenerated frame now boasts razor sharp claws allowing for greater battle prowess. * Reptilian Regenerative properties: Anole has a regenerative ability that can grow replacement limbs, though the full extent of this power remains unclear. After having his right arm amputated, Anole grew a larger scalier arm in its place. Later dipped in stomach acid Anole's physiology became larger and bulkier, making him that much physically stronger, faster, and tougher. He was stated to be a Low Threat by the O*N*E. | Abilities = Skilled team leader, and talented actor. Anole is a formidable hand to hand combatant, trained by the likes of Wolverine and others who taught him at the Xavier Institute. | Strength = | Weaknesses = | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = * Anole has had a very "on again, off again" role in the X-titles. During his first appearances in ''New Mutants'', he was mostly a second-string character. When the title changed to ''New X-Men: Academy X'', Vic was pushed a bit further into the background. Following M-Day, the Academy X suffix was dropped, and Anole and Pixie joined the main cast. In the wake of the Messiah Complex and Manifest Destiny, the Young X-Men were organized with Anole as a main character once again. Up until his reinclusion as a member of a primary roster in ''Extraordinary X-Men'', he had shown up as a prominent character in many limited series including ''X-Men: Divided We Stand'', ''Nation X'', ''Cloak and Dagger'', ''X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back'', ''X-Men: Hellbound'', the Collision story arc of ''X-Men: Legacy'', and ''X-Men: To Serve and Protect''. * Anole seems friendly with most of his classmates, but is especially close friends with Rockslide, Loa, and Graymalkin. Anole is also close with Pixie because of their experience in Limbo, and with former Alpha Squadron teammate Indra. * It seems that Anole is somewhat infatuated with the Young Avengers. He seems to know a lot about them and even threatened to join them. This may be because as a gay teen superhero, Anole feels a sense of camaraderie with Hulkling and Wiccan. | Trivia = * In the , it's listed he likes theater, frisbee, and basketball, and dislikes traditions and bad action movies. * He was voted "Best Actor" by the student body. In later comics, he's called "telegenic". * Victor's chosen foreign language is French. This decision is possibly influenced by his French-Canadian mentor, Northstar. * Anole was supposed to die by suicide in a jettisoned New Mutants storyline.Originally mentioned on DeFillippis and Weir's Comixfan message board forum, now defunct. * It was originally implied through dialogue that Victor was gay. His sexual orientation was confirmed by the writers online, and was reaffirmed later on in , , and . * Anole has a crush on Striker. | Wikipedia = Anole (comics) | Links = }} hu:Victor Borkowski (616) Category:Homosexual Characters Category:Superhuman Agility Category:Wallcrawling Category:Camouflage Category:Prehensile Tongue Category:Utopians Category:Reptilian Form Category:Xavier Institute Student Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (The 198) Category:Jean Grey School student Category:Low Threats Category:Regeneration Category:Orange-Flagged Category:Scaly Skin Category:Post-Secret Wars Mutants Category:Jean Grey School faculty